Page 12 - Hal Whitehead News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

by The Canadian Press Last Updated Mar 17, 2021 at 2:55 pm ADT HALIFAX — New research from a team including a Dalhousie University biologist suggests sperm whales taught each other to avoid whalers in the 18th and 19th centuries. The scientists published a paper today in the journal Biology Letters saying sperm whales in the North Pacific quickly changed their habits to avoid open-boat whalers. Dalhousie biology professor Hal Whitehead, co-author of the study, says log books from American whalers in the North Pacific show that successful harpooning trips fell by about 58 per cent over the f...

Sperm whales faced with the threat of mankind 200 years ago taught each other how to avoid getting killed, new research has found. The ocean mammals, the largest toothed predators in the world, are thought to have underwent 'cultural evolution' due to the pressure of whalers' harpoons. Vast amounts of culling was driven by growing demand for whalebone, ivory and the valuable oil derived from blubber. But sperm whales — which have the largest brains of any animal — learned when and how they were being slaughtered, before sharing this information with their pod.  Sperm whales live in all-f...

Brandon Sun By: Danielle Edwards, The Canadian Press Posted: Last Modified: 4:07 PM CDT Wednesday, Mar. 17, 2021 HALIFAX - New research from a team including a Dalhousie University biologistsuggests sperm whales taught each other to avoid whalers in the 18th and 19th centuries. Rescue personnel come to the aid of an injured sperm whale stranded in the coastal waters of in San Bartolo, Peru, Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2019. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-Martin Mejia HALIFAX - New research from a team i...

The Whale Who Will Come Soon A whale-watching trip is a voyage into the psychic dimensions of ocean in the 21st century By Rebecca Giggs The beachfront narrows to an ocherous ribbon, belted by blue, above and below. After a while, a handful of shearwaters appear in the air above the Cat Balou. The birds flash around us; like knife-thrower tricks at a circus. Diving through the water, each is crowned in a diadem of bubbles. The shearwaters come from Antarctica, like the humpbacks, and also Siberia, South America, and Japan; they arrive in Australia, where they often die in large numbers from ...